News of the World under formal investigation

Lawyers for hacking victims of News Corp. paper launch probe

Lawyers for hacking victims of News Corp.’s shuttered News of the World newspaper will formally investigate the cases of three or four individuals who may have been hacked by the paper Stateside.

The individuals were either living in or visiting the U.S. between 2001 and 2006 and at least one is a U.S. citizen, said U.K. lawyer Mark Lewis at a press briefing in New York on Friday alongside Gotham attorneys Norman Siegel and Steven Hyman. The New York lawyers will be co-counsel in the proceedings, which require Lewis to obtain evidence in Britain and formally pass it on to them to get the ball rolling.

None provided names or details of the people involved or predicted timing of when or whether charges could be filed. Three investigations will move forward and the fourth person hasn’t decided whether to proceed in the U.S. or the U.K., Lewis said.

Lewis indicated that evidence comes in part from diaries of private investigator Glen Mulcaire, who worked collecting information for the newspaper’s staff and kept notes that have included the names of other hacking victims.

Siegel and Hyman also represent the families of 9/11 victims who claim their phones may have been hacked. He said that to his knowledge the FBI and Department of Justice are still investigating those allegations.